''THE VISION IS CLEAR''
Developed: Square-Enix
Published: Square-Enix
Genre: Role Playing
Release Date: August 29th, 2024
Platforms: PS5/PS4/Xbox Family/PC
*Review copy provided to me by Square-Enix
Visions Of Mana is the latest entry into this storied franchise and it is developed and published by Square-Enix. With Square-Enix being on a total roll lately with banger after banger, it is now time to see if they can add another to their long line of games over the last year or so. But do they succeed in strengthening their hit streak? or does this one fall short of its goal? Only one way to find out, so lets go!
''WHY BUILD A TOWN NEXT TO A VOLCANO!?''
GAMEPLAY:
Now for those that know me, you will know I am a big fan of JRPG's, whether they're by Square-Enix, other big name companies or even indie games, if its a JRPG and seems quality, I will for SURE be there. Pretty much the same way if I sense you're ordering pizza, I'll find a way to sneak in your house and have me a slice. I AM INEVITABLE. But munching on some grubbage aside, I have been waiting for the next entry into the mana series for quite some time now, it feels like its been forever, much like waiting for Naughty Dog to stop remastering the same games for the 500th time. After a long wait however, Visions Of Mana has landed on our door step like NES boys paper in Paper Boy and its time to finally answer the question of, ''but is it actually good?''. The answer that question is both a yes and a no? the YES portion to that question is easy to spot as the game does stray true to what made the series popular in the first place by giving you a sense of nostalgia throughout, giving you a gorgeous canvas to behold with the environment, easy to use controls and mechanics that make it a perfect pick up and play JPRG. I mean all sounds good right? well sorta, but that's also an issue I can see some having too, its traditional and doesnt stray away at all from its roots and doesnt force a modernized RPG style on you. Granted that's not an issue for me personally, but I know a lot of people will scream ''GET WITH THE TIMES, WILL YA?'' like they're an old man sitting on their stoop screaming for those young whipper-snappers to get off his lawn. With the mana series getting its started on PS2, we as big fans(me and you, reader!) are finally related to the first brand new entry in a long time, after having been through many spinoffs of the franchise or even remasters - for some reason its always been a carrot dangled above our little rabbit heads, but never getting what we truly want. Well until now that is.
In this newest entry you play as multiple characters throughout your journey who are known as Alm's, which isa person who is tasked with bringing the world the peace it deserves and forging together the worlds Mana for a specific time period, albeit with a sacrifice of their own in the end. Sound familiar? if it does then you'll know it sounds very Final Fantasy X like, which isn't a bad thing by any means, its just the first thing that popped into my head, minus the AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAHHHHHHHH laughing or Wakka being a racist towards the Al-Bhed. FFX weirdness aside, you play as Val, a swordsman who is in charge of being the guardian or rather escort of the Alm who are on a Yu Yevon like pilgrimage to the Mana Tree to make their unselfish sacrifice to keep the worlds balance in check, but what starts off as a typical adventure, soon expands into a larger scaled journey than any of our main characters expected. I mean... duh? that's typical how our good boy RPG's go, you gotta have that schtick right?. Thankfully throughout, while characters main seem cliche or cookie cutter at times, there does persist a great amount of character development than I was expecting, on top of being one of the more straight forward RPG's in recent years that is both easy to grasp and even easier to manage - giving away to old school and new school fans to pick up and play with no real big learning curve. Unlike some RPGs that have you go through 50 mechanics in the opening hour, they know who I'm talking to. I know how easy I keep saying it is to pick up and play and that may be confusing to some people because usually RPGs have an over abundance of mechanics to use and strategize with, but sometimes that's not the only way to do things, sometimes less is more and makes the experience more enjoyable and that is exactly the case here in Visions with its combat and the overall usage of how its executed in a battle by battle scenario, should you choose to engage in every dang battle you see. I know, I get it. I too see something in the wild and just want to leeroy jenkins it and attack the heck out of it. But breathe in and breathe out, goosefraba, not everything needs its butt kicked bro. Well.. maybe you do, but we'll save that for later.
The combat, simplicity in its name, allows you to take part in various amounts of combination attacks done through timed button presses that allows you to execute special movies, juggling, move freely in and out of combat making it feel like you're in control without feeling TOO restricted, flows very well and offers you a sense of personal freedom as you run, jump and explore for 500 items to pick up because your ADHD like tendencies similar to mine kick in and you MUST. COLLECT. EVERYTHING. I'm sorry, I cant help it. If I see something shining on the ground, DANGIT, I'm grabbing it. I am the time waster champion of RPG's, so much like my boy Emet-Selch, ''Remember, that we lived'' and by WE, I mean all of us item grabbers who dont know when to stop collecting... REMEMBER US. Luckily to counter us, Visions has included faster travel options that lets you bypass areas you've already been to or ways to shorten the time between having to traverse through a whole map area just to get to a specific destination you've already been to before. Out of all things in modern gamer that I complain about and whine about, fast travel system is one thing I never will gripe about, cause like CM Punk said ''IM HURT, IM OLD and I work with FN Children''. Well minus him working with grown men who act like children who couldn't manage a Target. I'm getting old dang it and I cant afford to spend 5hrs along re-treading steps Ive always been too, so fast travel system will always be a of friend mine. Alongside the easy to use combat and the fun exploration, you have a character class system side by side, again with the big world exploration that adds a layer to your immersion and even replayability, should you want to go that route with huge reaching landscapes reaming with boss fights, regular monsters that alone can offer dozens more hours of gameplay and enjoyment to the player, which makes it a very hard title to put down, and instead makes you want to put in 6-7hr game binges every time you pick up the controller and then only stopping because you remembered, ''Oh ya, I forgot to eat today''. Please do not be like me, please remember to actually eat food.
''WIND STYLE JUTSU''
OVERALL:
At the end of the day, Visions of Mana for me was personally well worth the wait, but its definitely not perfect or guilty free of personal mishaps for it overall. The games difficulty can be a tad bit on the easy side, even if you do not fight as many normal MOBS you should be able to get through tough boss fights fairly easy either way and on top of that, side content that you are offered in various towns and areas that you come to are extremely underwhelming with no real depth to sink your teeth into for them and instead boil down to the tried and true formula for the average RPG of completing fetch quests and other things that make tend to make games rather monotonous.. it gets mundane as heck sometimes. However with a dynamic easy to use combat system, freedom of movement outside and inside of battle, strong character development, gorgeous landscapes to explore - it makes it very easy to forget about the negatives and become engrossed in this magical adventure once more in the Mana series and I for one came away with an overall positive vibe after completing it and I think any Mana fan will feel the same way. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.
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